Washington — Catalan Volcanoes and their Rocks. 223 



lava beds not entering materially into the structure of most of 

 those examined by me ; though massive flows occur at the base 

 of some of them, many of which are held to belong to the 

 earlier eruptive period, and a compact lava stream was noted at 

 the summit of La Garrinada. The material of which they are 

 composed, therefore, is predominantly highly scoriaceous, and 

 may be either in the form of blocks of very vesicular lava, 

 scorise, or very fine lapilli, which may be mingled w T ith the 

 larger blocks or may make up the cone to the exclusion of 

 the former. 



The largest of these cones is Puig* Moner, near Granollers, 

 about half way between Gerona and Olot (which I could not 

 visit), whose height above the surrounding country Gelabert 

 gives as 550 meters. 



But this is exceptionally high, and the great majority have 

 altitudes above their bases of about 100 meters or so, ranging 

 from only 30 meters to about 200. They all show well-defined 

 craters, and many are breached more or less on one side. For 

 the most part they have but one crater, though La Garrinada 

 possesses three and Puig Montcal, according to Gelabert, 

 as many as four. While some of these craters are compara- 

 tively deep, most of them are quite shallow, and they are 

 usually overgrown with a more or less dense forest vegetation, 

 as are most of the outer slopes, though the bottoms of a few 

 are given up to cultivation, as at Montsacopa and Santa Mar- 

 garita. In general the original form is well preserved, as is 

 seen at Montsacopa and La Garrinada, though others, as Cruz- 

 cat, have suffered very considerable denudation. But on the 

 whole the state of preservation is so good that a comparatively 

 recent origin must be ascribed to them all. 



While detailed descriptions of the volcanic cones visited 

 would be out of place here, and are especially unnecessary in 

 view of the imminent publication of the work of the Spanish 

 commission, yet a few notes on some of the more important 

 ones may be welcome, as these volcanoes are comparatively 

 little known. 



The best known are the three in the immediate vicinity of 

 the town of Olot, namely Montolivet, Montsacopa, and La Gar- 

 rinada. The first of these (flg. 3), which lies northwest of 

 Olot, is crescentic in form, having been breached on the north 

 side, the highest point of the rim, where a fortified watch 

 tower stands, being 105 meters above the base. The diameter 

 of the crater is about 300 meters, the sides being covered with 

 oaks, and the bottom (which lies about 75 meters below the 

 summit) being give over to cultivation, while a driven well, 



*Ttie Catalan word for these cones is puig, which is the etymological 

 equivalent of the French puy. 



